Blast, I stood at 2-1 and had to leave for work.  For what it's worth, these are great tournaments - very well run and great competitors.  Looking forward to more in the future.

If anyone in the Boston area is interested in testing for the upcoming Grand Prix, PM me or reply to the thread.  I'm interested in running some gauntlets to make a deck choice.  So far I've assembled burn, Natural Order/Aggro Elves, Dredge, and Merfolk (Mental Missteps on order).  Leaning towards NO elves, as it's been outperforming the others in testing pre-board.  I'm probably a better dredge pilot as I've played it a ton in Vintage (made top 8 at Pandemonium a couple of months back).

Thanks.

That's E(netertainment) in Worcester has a weekly legacy on Sunday's. $5 entry.  I only went once but there was a good turnout and a variety of the competitive decks.  well run shop.

WORCESTER STORE
244 Park Ave.
Worcester, MA
01609
(508)-755-4207
Mon - Sat:
10am to 8pm
Sunday:
10am to 6pm

If others are interested, a 1 week delay would be appreciated.

Finally got the booster box.  I ended up getting Zendikar, with pretty mediocre overall results.  I was able to trade for some relatively decent cards, but didn't really pull any surprising or expensive cards.  Two enemy fetches in the whole box represented the real money cards.  It certainly helps to reinforce my general approach, which is to buy the cards I want a la carte.  Mythic rarity really hurts for the box/pack buyers.  I think for mythics I got Iona, Chandra Ablaze, and some painful jank.  At least the full art lands are nice.

I think if you go with Leyline maindeck, then you ditch the fatestitcher plan and move the Cities of Brass to the board.  I've always found stitcher to be win more except in the mirror and against combo decks, and he's worthless against decks packing wasteland (at least 35% of your projected field).  I would probably play maindeck darkblast or unmask in place of the stitchers.  I've found unmask to be pretty weak game 2 as the opponent's hate has typically hit the field, leaving it as a back-up option to chain + therapy.  I agree that Angel can be switched out for either Woodfall Primus or Terastadon.  Just make sure you have experience in picking targets with the 'Don - it takes some practice.  I personally prefer primus.  The only difference is that angel can hit a creature, which is typically not relevant, and doesn't work against Blightsteel anyway.

With the space freed up in the board, I would run 4 claims, 4 chain, 4 city of brass, 1-2 ingot chewer (believe it or not, I have had to dread return this guy to beat a piece of hate - silent arbiter, and it's your only out to chalice at 1), 1-2 darkblast.  It's almost always a good idea to bring your chalices back in for game 3 and streamline your anti-hate based on what you've seen game 2.

Finally, and I may stir up some controversy with this statement, you must always mulligan/powder to bazaar.  A hand without bazaar will rarely win.  I've kept a 7 card hand stacked with anti-hate and the means to cast it and gotten blown out.  Why - no way to discard and your hand gets depleted such that it's difficult to get to the end of turn discard phase.  Yes, we have an aggro plan, but it rarely keeps pace in Vintage, it's option C at best.  A single bazaar activation can often be enough to get there.

Good luck in the tournament and let us know how you do.

Mini-report and new list.  This is from Scholar's a few weeks ago, 9-man event.  I went 2-1-1, just outside of contention.

3 lotus, mox emerald, mox pearl
4 null rod
3 reliquary
3 relic warder
2 revoker
4 teeg
3 pridemage
4 hierarch
2 kataki
3/1 arbiter/mindcensor
2 swords to plowshares
1 nature's claim

5 waste/strip
1 karakas
1 maze of ith
4 horizon canopy
2 ancient tomb
6 fetch
4 savannah
1 plains
1 forest

SB
2 enlightened tutor
1 ghost quarter
2 canonist
2 tormod's
3 serenity
2 path to exile
3 wheel of sun and moon

Round 1 - victory over the bye (kind of annoying, I'm trying to test this thing)

Round 2 - Dredge with blue splash 1-1-1
Game 1 - get railed
Game 2 - waste and wheel buy me enough time.  After wheel gets blasted, I'm able to strategically remove bridges, swords/path the recursive creatures, and block dread return with teeg.
Game 3 - another long game.  Early wheel gets chained/therapied.  Tormod's keeps me in it along with the above strategy.  He had an active bazaar the entire game but I exhausted his deck.  We draw with 4 cards left in his deck and nothing of note in his yard.  A drawn knight would have gone the distance.  Should have scooped game 1 quicker.

Round 3 - GushBond tendrils/warrens
Game 1 - Die turn 2 to a tendrils kill
Game 2 - Teeg and Canonist rule the day.  Tormod's came in to prevent Yawg Will nonsense
Game 3 - Kataki and Wasteland stifle development while hierarch lets me power past.  I was apparently a turn or two away from a blow-out pyroclasm, but managed the win instead.

Round 4 - 1st place on the line; v. Tezz/vault/key, tinker backup plan
Game 1 - Fetch for Savannah, get blown out by wasteland.  Simply wasn't expecting waste in a Tezz build - could have stolen this game with a basic, I think.
Game 2 - Combination of Null Rod and Kataki kills multiple critical artifcats.  I win the mana denial stratgey with arbiter and wastes
Game 3 - sooo close; early card advantage from ancestral and a stacked tolarian academy give him the gas to power through teeg (remand is better than rpeal when you're dealing with teeg), arbiter, and a nature's claim.

I'm trying to strike a balance between a deck that doesn't auto fold to shops, while keeping some game against blue.  I was pretty happy with the performance against dredge as well, and should have won that match.  The tombs have been a nice addition to power out early null rods and revokers.  As of now, I'm liking it better than sol ring and mana crypt (espicailly given my luck with die - did I mention I didn't win a single die roll all day).  I'm very close to caving in to the aether vial bandwagon.  One more bear with a nice comes-into-play effect would push me over the edge.

@serracollector - don't you think knight of the reliquary would be nice to assemble you're mangara combo, esp in a vial build where both cost 3.  And can someone explain to me why flagstones of trokair is good?

Very interesting deck.  I agree that this deck doesn't want null rod, given the vials and equipment.  I also think that canonist and revoker would be strong inclusions.  In that case, adding in 2-3 ancient tombs could be a real bonus, and at least as strong as adding in sol ring and mana crypt since it works better with Kataki.  Increasing your artifact density would make 1-2 enlightened tutors useful as well, even though it doesn't play week with arbiter, it plays better than stoneforge.  Forget about adding green - it completely changes the focus of the deck.  IMO, G/W is a null rod deck.

But what to cut?  Kataki, Relic-Warder, Arbiter, and path/swords seem like auto-includes.  The 12-14 slots to play with seem to be crusader, student of warfare, true believer, and ghost quarter (worthless against most blue decks, doubly so against gush).  I'm curious how effective student of warfare has been?  I'm guessing he never makes it to level 7, so you're after the level 2 ability of 3/3 1st strike to take out Lodestone while playing around spheres?  And don't you need that mana during you're turn to pay Kataki costs for your vials/equipment?  Do you really need 4 crusader's?  The Kor Duelist seems to do what you want at a much lower cost.  If you're worried about oath, preacher and true believer are options out of the board.  Orim's Chant is also a good sideboard choice to stall gush-bond and ritual decks (I use silence since I'm cheap).  The abolish is an interesting suggestion, more so if you consider shoving in the old classic land tax.

Final answers: -4 students, -2 crusader, -2 ghost quarter, 4 true believer to SB (leyline is too random)
+ 2 ancient tomb, +2 enlightened tutor, +4 duelist, +2 revoker, + 2 canonist

Personally, I like a 2/2 split of arbiter and mindcensor, but that's just me.

Going to try to make this today!

This deck is awesome, and congrats on your 100th article.  I've been assembling oathinator since playing "fair" decks lately has been frustrating for me.  The sheer brokenness and resilience reminds me a bit of your 2-card monte deck.  It's fairly cool that you're developing a style to your deck development.

At any rate, I had a couple of questions.  Why a second terastadon in the board?  Have you found a need for double elephants in any particular matches?  Also, is the singleton strip mine for the oath mirror, or are you worried about lands like Maze of Ith and Karakas?  The pithing seems to handle those two lands well enough, and a land like phyrexian tower in conjunction with your own orchards would handle other oath decks while giving you some value.  Has the tutor suite been sufficient to find your singletons, or do you ever find yourself needing something more like imperial seal?  Did Emrakul ever enter the discussion?

Thanks for developing this list.  Reanimator was my first "real" deck in magic, using a combination of resurrection, breeding pit, and hell's caretaker.  This one has substantially more gas.  If you have any more testing or tournament results, I'm sure everyone love to hear about them.

Is this no longer a weekly event?

Thanks for posting some testing results.  Most people just throw up a deck with no real analysis and assert that the list is the bees knees.  Inclusion of leonin relic-warder and phyrexian revoker are probably warranted, and could replace nature's claim to some extent.  I like revoker on Jace and metalworker, and relic warder is a better answer, short-term at least, for blightsteel colossus.  Of course, you'll get rolled even more by Chalice at 2.  Not sure I can completely give up pridemage, but there's a great deal of overlap between claim, pridemage, and relic-warder.  It will be interesting trying to optimize that.

I still can't quite get behind the off-color moxen, canonist, and ESG.  Too many WW and WG casting costs.  Much respect for your blanket admission of writing of Dredge, though it may bite you sometime in the future.

I hope you'll continue to post your results with this deck, particularly in tournaments.

Well, at least now we know how to get the designer to respond to the thread!  In all seriousness, I felt I was pretty open in admitting my personal limitations with the deck, and apologize if you took offense to my post. First time in a tournament setting is bound to yield a lot of...teachable moments.  I did a lot of testing against my opponents after the matches and began to get a feel for the decision trees.  That said, your point is well taken.  Thing is, MUD, and in particular aggro based Metalworker MUD has been putting up some impressive numbers lately.  Maybe I misinterpreted my poor showing as being a weakness in the build itself against a changing field.  It's been stated many times on this thread that the deck is difficult to pilot.  I conceded that my tutoring decision tree was really challenging.  BTW, thanks for the call on Duplicant (non-token).

I went back and reread your tourney report from this thread, and noted that helm-line won you multiple matches, yet at the beginning of thread, it appears you side the combo out in a majority of matches.  Are you getting the combo online when Leyline isn't in your opener?  Do you ever tutor for the parts with that as the primary win-con over Hex-Depths?  Also, having to tutor for your disruption (i.e. singleton null rod) rather than drawing it is not insignificant when facing a 4-turn clock with a sphere effect attached.

I like the suggestion for crucible over gatekeeper.  Do you think ratchet bomb could come in over EE, or is EE strictly better?  If so, why?  Have you dumped Bitterblossom in the SB?

The feedback is appreciated.  After all, you designed the deck, and know it's interactions better than anyone else here.  I feel that tourney reports are very helpful in understanding the deck, so if you have time to post any more, I for one would be greatly appreciative. 

I'm looking for some advice on this deck after getting railed to the tune of 0-4 in a small weekly tourney last night (12 players I think).  Here the fairly standard list I ran:

3 Dark Depths
2 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
12 Swamp
5 Wasteland/strip mine
2 Mox, Black Lotus

1 Yawgmoth's Will
1 Helm of Obedience
1 Null Rod
1 Necropotence
1 Gatekeeper of Malakir
3 Diabolic Edict
4 Leyline
4 Hexmage
4 Confidant
4 Duress
4 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
4 Tutors (Demoic, Consultation, Imperial Seal, Vampiric)

Board:
1 Crucible of Worlds (for shops)
2 Ghost Quarter
4 Emissary of Despair
2 Sadistic Sacrament
2 Yixlid Jailer
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Massacre
1 perish


I faced 2 blue decks (Jace control with Tinker-bot, Vault-Key and Jace/Tezz as win-cons) and 2 Aggro shop decks with metalworker. I'm perfectly willing to admit that I made multiple play errors since this was my first time piloting the deck.  It was mentioned somewhere above that selecting tutor targets is the most difficult aspect of the deck.  I would say out of the gate though, that I plan to drop helm, and maybe the leylines altogether to get the full 4 null rods in the main.  It's the only card that can keep you in the game long enough to land and protect the win-con. 

Here are some scenarios I faced.
Consult brought my deck down to 10 cards looking for 1 of 3 dark confidants, removing all 3 dark depths.
First turn consult for emissary, ritual into emissary against MUD.  After 1 swing he lands trike and resistors - GG
MUD topdecks a second sphere, and I lose with helm-line on the board unable to activate for the win
Marit Lage repealed
Duplicant on Marit Lage (ouch)
Double wasteland with Dark depths and hexmage on the board
Urborg as only black source allows my opponent to cantrip his Nihil spellbomb to draw the repeal he just tutored.

All in all a frustrating night.  I plan to give it another go, but was wondering if anyone had experiences to share in tutoring properly, and what are good options to replace helm-line (rods, tendrils, phyrexian negator against control decks?)

Well, the judge ruled that both players are responsible for keeping track of Teeg's ability.  As I mentioned, things would have gone much better if I had more practice with the deck and knew the cards better.  Thanks for pointing out the EE issue though.  Given the dearth of X spells in Vintage, it's easy (for me at least) to remember that Teeg covers X and non-creature CMC 4 and up.


Can you tell us about some of your results and match ups with the deck?  I'm not so impressed with arbiter at this stage given that the search cost only has to be paid once per turn, while mindcensor is a stronger search denier and better beater.  I've gone to a 2/2 split of those cards.  My meta has a ton of bounce and removal (in particular trike, duplicant,repeal), so relic warder seems like a fragile response - maybe consider a split with claims.  I agree with madmanmike that hierarch is key in the shop match, and would also agree with mana crypt or ancient tomb over off-color moxen to power out null rod, canonist and revokers.  I'm guessing that your deck has a better chance against shops on the draw, but suffers against blue decks.  Plus, is there no dredge in your meta?

Hey all,

By some bizarre twist, I won a booster box in a raffle, and was wondering which of the following sets vintage players would recommend.

Rise of the Eldrazi, Scars of Mirrodin, Zendikar, Saviors of Kamigawa;

I was leaning towards Zendikar, because of the enemy fetches, but could I potentially get more value from a different set?

Thanks in advance...

Are you sure about this one? The comprehensive rules state the following:
110.1. A permanent is a card or token on the battlefield. A permanent remains on the battlefield
indefinitely. A card or token becomes a permanent as it enters the battlefield and it stops being a
permanent as it’s moved to another zone by an effect or rule.

The bushido is still helpful against MUD, and he'll keep you from getting strip-locked.  It also prevents welder tricks, although I haven't seen mono-Red Stax in a while.  Against dredge, it will keep bridge from below from working and will make sure that ichorid is a one-hit wonder.  Not a bad card, but if it exiled like you suggest, it would be better than Leyline or Wheel.

I think I'll playtest Vial.  I've got a playset for my legacy merfolk deck, so it will be worth a try.  Problem is we'd have to move the discussion out of this forum!

Hey Storm,

At a glance, your list is better against MUD.  Vial will dodge chalice and sphere effects.  An extra Kataki and Ghost Quarter will put more pressure on the mana-base.  Goyf is a decent clock but may not get much bigger than 4/5 (you'll put instants, lands, and creatures in the yard, and your claims will get opposing artifacts in the yard).  Path is better than swords against decks without basics - I think this is a really good suggestion.  But I don't see how it can beat a blue-control or combo deck, and even with the board, it's going to have a hard time with Ichorid.  Without maindeck Teeg you have little chance against any deck that plays force.  I think this highlights the trouble with Fish strategies right now.  They are basically hate decks that can prey on a clearly defined meta, but they suffer when the major tiers are quite different.  Workshop, Gush, Drain, and Oath strategies are too diverse, especially since so much SB space has to be set aside for Dredge.  The recent printings have really beefed up Workshop strategies to the detriment of Fish decks.  Hopefully we'll get some decent hatebears in the coming sets.

Anyway, can you explain why you like Samurai?  How would you use Revoker against an Espresso stax build?  Do you bring in Canonist against combo only, or do you think it has other applications. 

I agree with you on some points.  I never claimed that I revolutionized the deck.  The only new thing I presented was the sideboard strategy, which is flexible enough to bring in cards like Vial or Equipment.  MUD is 30% of the meta and posting amazing numbers.  I didn't face MUD, and that was the match-up I wanted to see most.  You may not like Metalworker, but it's posting the strongest results lately.  I think Vial is fools gold.  It does nothing until turn three and then, at best, it allows you to drop 2 creatures that turn.  It beats Chalice and Spheres, but not quickly enough.  Null Rod has an impact as soon as it hits.  MUD is more dependent on its artifact mana than most decks, and Rod gives you the tempo advantage you need to catch up.  Cards like Swords, Claim, and Pridemage do the same very cheaply, keeping you alive long enough in the face of Lodestone and Hellkite to stabilize and get the hate-bears or cards like Serenity into play.  You also, while criticizing one-for-one's argue for more Ghost Quarters, which are essentially card disadvantage against Blue decks which still comprise 30% of the field.  Why are 1-1 trades bad against a deck that has no draw (even less than G/W, since we at least have Canopy)? Check out the Noble Fish deck that came in 2nd in the Grudge match - how one-for-one trades do you see there?
 
It's not too difficult to add a Kataki and drop a True Believer.  Knight is there in place of Goyf.  He's Goyf's equal in combat but has an amazing utility feature that can yield a temporary strip-lock, fetch a maze or Kataki, again generating enough tempo advantage to go the distance.  If I hadn't been a bonehead and lost my knight in the second match I would have locked my opponent out of mana between knight and null rod and had a sufficient beater to finish the game quickly.

Sorry to necro this thread, but I’ve been brewing a G/W deck for some time, and feel I’ve hit on a way to make it competitive.  I’m hoping that people interested in this deck find the sideboard stategy helpful.  Here’s the deck as I played it, and changes I’m planning:

Artifacts:
1 Lotus
2 Mox (Pearl/Emerald)
4 Null Rod
2 Thorn of Amethyst (+1  Swords/+1 Claim)

Creatures:
4 Teeg
2 True Believer
2 Kataki, War’s Wage
4 Knight of the Reliquary
4 Noble Hierarch
4 Quasali Pridemage
4 Leonin Arbiter (will switch 1-2 for Aven Mindcensor)

Instants:
2 Swords to plowshares (need 3)
2 Nature’s Claim (need 3)

Lands:
4 Horizon Canopy (worked extremely well for draw)
4 Savannah
5 Fetchlands (3 Heath, 2 Flooded Strand)
2 Plains
1 Forest
1 Ghost Quarter (likely switch to Maze of Ith)
1 Karakas (combat tricks with Teeg, not dead since it makes white)
4 Wasteland
1 Strip Mine

SB
2 Enlightened Tutor
2 Tormod’s Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
3 Wheel of Sun and Moon
2 Ethersworn Canonist
3 Serenity
2 Crucible of Worlds

I ran it for the first time competitively at the weekly Scholar’s vintage tournament, and despite going 0-2, was encouraged by its competitiveness despite my ridiculously poor play (seriously, I completely forgot ‘Teeg was in play when my opponent cast force on my Kataki, which would have sealed up the lock – moron).  I faced Dredge and a Salvagers variant that featured Jace, Tezz, Vault/Key, Tinker/Bot.  The obvious question is – why would you be encouraged by an 0-2 drop?  Here goes.

Round 1 v. Dredge
Game 1 – He was playing a fatestitcher dredge.  He won the roll and kept his 7.  I drew no land destruction and he managed a turn 2 flame-kin win on the back of a fatestitcher based re-use of bazaar.  I’ve played fatestitcher several times and been impressed with the game 1 explosiveness of this build.  I feel it lacks consistency, however.

Game 2 – +3 Relic/Tormod’s +2 Enlightened Tutor, +3 Wheel of Sun and Moon, - 4 Null Rods, -2 Claim, -2 Kataki.  I open a grip with Wasteland, Relic, Tormod’s and Enlightened Tutor.  He opens with bazaar and gets some dredgers  in the yard.  With both relic and tormod’s in play, I tutor for wheel.  Drawing into Pridemage and Knight (which finished as an 8/8) was enough to win, although I had to pop tormod’s early and relic cleared my yard as well shrinking my knight.

Game 3 – I keep my 7 with wasteland.  He keeps his 7 and plays bazaar.  I waste but he had the 2nd bazaar in his opener.  I’m still in it because he fails to hit much action in the first few bazaar activations.  My key play error – he gets ichorid into play with 3 bridges in the yard.  I didn’t swords ichy during his draw step and he was able to get 3 zombies.  We went to turns and he finished me in turn 3.  If I had played swords I would have at least managed a draw, and perhaps the win.

This match was lost by my play error and against a dredge player who barely had to mulligan.  The sideboard was pitch perfect, allowing me to drop multiple pieces of hate and tutoring for other options.

Round 2 v. Salvager/Jace/Tezz/Tinker/Key/Vault deck (Bomberman?)
Game 1 – I draw all 4 of my null rods.  Still, they’re fairly effective since my wastes/strip have him  locked down with a board full of artifact mana, top, and key.   My major play error in this match was attacking with a 3/3 knight into his 2/2 trinket mage with an active nihil spellbomb on board prior to the null rod flood.  I could have locked him out by tutoring up land destruction.  I also realized that leonine arbiter’s search cost only needs to be paid once in the turn, making me think about bringing back a couple of mindcensors.  Mana was no trouble in any of the matches.  I lose when he hurkyl’s my null rods and gets vault/key online.

Game 2: +2 canonist, +2 tutor +3 serenity; -2 true believer, -1 ghost quarter (he had basics), -2 knight, -1 arbiter, -1 teeg
 Opponent gets 1st turn tinker to myr battlesphere.  I claim the sphere, he forces.  I swords the sphere and am facing down the 4 myr tokens, following by a trinket mage.  I get enough blockers on line to stay alive but I attack with an exalted teeg and he takes back a double block with his remaining 2 myr tokens (stupid of me to say anything before assigning damage).  I lay a kataki which he forces.  I forget about Teeg until several turns later, during which I tutored for a serenity (should have grabbed rob) which barely broke even.  I later land a thorn of amethyst but my board gets wiped by engineered explosives.  I can’t overcome my play errors and end up losing to tezz ultimate.

These results lead me to believe that tight play could allow success with the deck.  The sideboard was awesome.  Enlightened tutor allows you to expand your hate options.  I just need practice tutoring for the right pieces.  I really wanted to face a workshop deck this time.  I think serenity, claim, pridemage, and crucible will shine in the matchup.  I’ll continue to post my results here if there’s any interest.  Of note, there was one other G/W deck there, but I don’t know what flavor and how he did.

Thanks for injecting some new ideas - appreciate your efforts to keep dredge relevant. 

I was wondering how you sideboard against MUD.  I played in the recent Rhode Island tourney, with a 1-2 loss to MUD (won game 1, loss to double Lodestone beatdown in game 2 after mull to 4 and a wasted Bazaar, loss to resistors and pithing game 3).  I think playing Sun Titan to get the Serenity into play is wishful thinking, and I agree with leaving it out.  Have you ever had a scenario in which Angel of Despair would have been better than primus (kill lodestone, oath creature, sphinx of the steel wind, or battlesphere)?  Any particular reason for maindeck Leyline of the Void - stopping welder antics?

Do you have a link to this conversation.  It seems like he's in agreement with the DCI decision here, and it would be interesting to see a prior opinion, if different.  Thanks.

If you're going to run Kataki, then it makes sense to me to drop the sylvan and mirri's guile to add main-deck serenity.  I also think skullclamp is worth testing, as it can help you to make terrific trades with opposing golems (or especially juggernaut).  I understand where you're coming from on hierarch, but there are more disruptive maindeck options like grunt, shusher, and canonist.  Since I just killed your mana-curve, I suppose ESG needs to come back in.

I'm a skeptic right now as well.  I can't envision a scenario in which I'm able to dread return titan and need to grab serenity or bazaar.  That said, it doesn't take up nearly as much room as the sharuum combo, and putting in a singleton is probably worth a try.  I'm excited about Leyline of Sanctity as well  - it's a sideboard card that you want to play maindeck.  Do you think a straight swap for Leyline of the Void for the mirror is the right way to go?

Yeah, the question of whether to go with Goyf or Dryad never got totally settled.  Growing a Dryad was insane in a format with 4X Brainstorm, 3-4X ponder, 4X Gush, 4X merchant scroll.  Goyf is probably the better choice in today's format.  The main problem is that the "cantrips" needed to go off are in short supply.  The deck could win by going aggro or simply comboing out with 'Tog, Gush and Fastbond.  The end of the gush era was pretty interesting.  Painter.dec and Shops preyed on Tog's flimsy manabase, but at least 3 decks still used the gushbond engine (Gro, Oath, and Gush-Tendrils). 

I think you need a stronger disruption package.  Since Channel is restricted you only have one shot to pull off your combo.  This reminds me of gush-era flash decks.  In fact, restricted flash may have more of a chance since you don't need the GG to cast it.  At any rate, those decks often packed 4-8 duress effects.  Further, I think enlightened tutor is better than personal because it's instant speed, so swapping out taiga for savannah might be a decent way to achieve that.  This gives you access to swords, path, and serenity in the board.  Serenity is an absolute bear against Stax/MUD, Oath, and Vault-Key, and you can still put your mirror into play when you're ready to combo out.  I would ditch the fabricates - they're quite slow as a 3CC sorcery.  Putting in Merchant scroll will get you to ancestral or allow you to go down the old-school tutor chain.  Ponder and brainstorm are a must, and the new card that scry's might be good too. I would use elvish spirit guide over manamorphose to get channel into play.  And if you're going to play tinker, you may as well put a robot in.  Sphinx is a still good call right now, and some bounce would be helpful.  I also think pact becomes less powerful if we ditch torch as a win-con.

Building from Malhavoc's list:
drop red, add white.
-4 personal tutor, -4 fabricate, -1 Kaervach's torch, -1 Taiga, -4 Manamorphose, -1 Nevi's disk, -1 ruby, -2 top, -4 star, -2 pact
+ 1 Savannah, +6 duress/thoughtseize, + 1 merchant scroll, +3 enlightened tutor, + 4 elvish spirit guide, + 1 pearl, + 1 sphinx of the steel wind, + 1 emrakul, +1 stroke of genius, +1 bayou, +1 tropical island, +2 chain of vapor

Just in case the DCI gets crazy, I think I'll pick up a playset of channel.  This gets pretty exciting with unrestricted channel.

There seems to be a lot of support for either Rishadan Port and/or City of Traitors.  On the other hand, Mishra's factories seem to have fallen out of favor.  Those seem like a better choice against fish and oath with an ability to apply pressure, and as chump blockers to clear bridge from below against Dredge.  Port ties up 2 lands to tap one of theirs, while ciity seems difficult to play without a crucible on the field.  Do you really want to see either one in your opening hand?

Is this why no one considers Ethersworn Canonist?  White gives you Balance and gives you access to Swords and enlightened tutor.  Those options help to combat Oath and Fish at least.  A 2-color Stax with R/W might be worth testing.

A small point - do you still think Woodfall Primus is a better choice than Terastadon for a dread return target in dredge?  Otherwise, I think the turtle dredge "shell," if you will, is a great way to approach the deck.  Has serenity typically been castable in your post-board games, and has the maindeck darkblast ever been particularly relevant over, say, another golgari thug or a second Dakmor?